Global Lives Project

The Global Lives Project, a unique video library that presents life experiences from cultures and communities around the world, receives a major exhibition at the University of California, Berkeley during the 2017-18 academic year. Created by UC Berkeley professor and alumnus David Evan Harris, the project is being presented in Berkeley as a multivenue video installation at four campus institutions: the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA); CITRIS and the Banatao Institute Tech Museum; the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology; and the Center for Social Sector Leadership at the Haas School of Business.

Throughout the academic year, each of these venues hosts an installation displaying excerpts from the Global Lives library, which captures the diversity of human experience through real-time, twenty-four-hour videos of individuals’ lived experiences across the globe. The project was conceived by Harris and realized by a global collective of filmmakers and volunteers, with the goal of sparking discussion and reflection about the range of cultures, ethnicities, languages, and religions present in the modern world.

Following its 2016 presentation at the Film Society of Lincoln Center—where excerpts from the project screened as an official selection at the New York Film Festival—the Global Lives Project is being displayed at UC Berkeley in multiscreen installations that are distinct to each of its four campus venues. Exhibition dates for each location follow below:

CITRIS and the Banatao Institute: October 4, 2017 through May 31, 2018

BAMPFA: October 24 through December 29, 2017

Hearst Museum of Anthropology: October 24, 2017 through January 31, 2018 (in the South Lobby of Kroeber Hall)

Haas School of Business: Spring/Summer 2018 (Dates TBA)

Related Events

On October 26th at 6 p.m. the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology will host a Q & A with David Harris & Jason Price, who will discuss the relationship between the Global Lives Project and the fields of anthropology, ethnographic film, documentary, art, and education; the event is free with museum admission.

On December 3 at 2 p.m., BAMPFA hosts a panel discussion with Harris and three of his Global Lives collaborators, which includes screenings of additional excerpts from the project; the event is free with BAMPFA admission.

On April 21, 2018, CITRIS and the Banatao Institute’s Tech Museum in Sutardja Dai Hall will be open for Cal Day for self-guided tours of the Global Lives project. Free admission.

Support

Global Lives Project is made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, David Eckles Fund for Diversity and Social Impact, Adobe Foundation, Jacob L. and Lillian Holtzmann Foundation, and more than 500 individual donors. The BAMPFA presentation is organized by Director and Chief Curator Lawrence Rinder; The CITRIS and the Banatao Institute presentation is organized and designed by CITRIS Tech Museum Curator and CITRIS Invention Lab Manager Daniel Chapman.